Double post:
I forgot, that I wanted to write something about the German titles of the Dresden Files. By the way, my husband is still stuck in the middle of Storm Front. He doesn't read much. But he says he likes the book. OK. He's been reading it for almost a year now. Sigh. This is something we don't have in common. If I like a book, I don't stop reading for weeks, and I read at every opportunity. Even sometimes during cooking. If it wasn't considered impolite, I would even take books to parent's meetings, to have something interesting with me, when the conversation gets boring.
I always carry some book around with me.
OK, now to the titles.
Storm Front → Sturmnacht
That would translate as Storm Night. To be honest, not a bad title but the German phrasing Sturmfront does also exist and means the same, so why not take that? Whatever *shrugs*
Fool Moon → Wolfsjagd
=Wolf hunt. It's OK.
Grave Peril → Grabesruh
= the quiet or stillness of the grave
Not quite the meaning. The people translating the title either didn't understand the pun or they had no idea how to put that into the title.
Summer Knight → Feenzorn
= the wrath of the fae
That's OK. Referring to the content. There is no way to write a sound alike Summer Knight and Summer Night. The exact translation would be "Sommerritter", but I wouldn't buy a book with a title like that. That sounds like Rosamunde Pilcher doing middle ages. LOL
Death Masks → Silberlinge
referring to the silver coins. I'm not sure about the translation: maybe silverlings?
That title sounds pretty harmless, compared to the content if the book.
Blood Rites → Bluthunger
=blood thirst or more exactly hunger (funny, it's the same word)
I would have called it Blutritual.
Dead Beat → Erlkönig
OK. Someone has read the book and chose the title representing another aspect of the content. The Erlking.
Funny, when I try to describe the books using only one word or one sentence, Dead Beat is "zombie dinosaur" for me.
It took me a while to remember the Erlking was in there, too.
Proven Guilty → Schuldig
= guilty. This is the only title I like better in German, because it's only one short and precise word.
White Night → Weiße Nächte
= White nights, plural. Why plural? No idea. A title translated almost exactly, except for the plural.
Small Favor → Kleine Gefallen
The same, also plural.
Turn Coat → Verrat
= treachery, a turncoat would be "Überläufer/ Verräter"
Changes → Wandel
Exact translation even in the context oft the book. Another word would be "Veränderungen", but this doesn't sound quite so fitting as a book title.
Ghost Story → Geistergeschichten
Another word for word translation only set in plural again. It seems, the title creator seemed to like plural.
Cold Days → Eiskalt
=freezing / cold as ice
Skin Game → Blendwerk
Hm, a bit archaic version of "deception". But fitting as a title for this book.
Peace Talks →Friedensgespräche
Word for word and this time the plural is even in the English title.
Battle Ground → ?
I can't find it yet on amazon, but I predict it will be called "Schlachtfeld" or "Schlachtfelder", as the title creator likes plural, LOL
OK. I admit, some of them are not so bad, considering you can't possibly do every pun or wordplay in another language.
Also the Dresden Files are called "Die dunklen Fälle des Harry Dresden"= the dark files/cases of Harry Dresden.
